INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SECURITY LOCKING APPARATUS AND METHOD

A clock buffer or driver is gated pending reception of verifiable crypto keys. These clock buffer or divers remain gated, thus disabling a processor from any meaningful function, till crypto keys are decoded, verified, and applied to the clock buffer or driver. A low frequency pseudorandom frequency hopping time sequence is generated and used for randomizing spread-spectrum to modulate a reference clock (or output clock) of a frequency synthesizer. This hopping time sequence holds the key to unlocking the crypto keys. The PWM modulated crypto keys are carried by the hopping time sequence. To decode the PWM modulated crypto keys, the hopping time sequence is used. The reference clock which is modulated with crypto keys in the spread-spectrum is sent to a decoder (in a processor) along with the hopping time sequence. The crypto keys are decoded and then used to un-gate the clock buffer.